Spotlight: Baton Teleplay Modem

In
1992, when the World Wide Web was still an ambitious dream and most people had
not even heard the term “email,” Keith Rupp designed what was arguably the
world’s first console gaming modem. The Baton Teleplay Modem, designed for the
three leading consoles of the time, offered something that was then unheard-of
to gamers: the ability to compete head-to-head against a real human player
anywhere across the country. It was a revolutionary idea, far ahead of its
time, that almost certainly would have changed the face of gaming as we know
it. So why have you never heard of it? I caught up with Keith to find out.

-By Frank Cifaldi

Keith
(as he prefers to be referred to for the duration of this article) first had the
idea in 1990. A gamer himself, Keith recognized the nearly limitless potential
of attaching online capability to the then-powerhouse gaming console, the
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). An early investor by the name of Albert
Zlotnick introduced Keith to Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, who took the
idea under his wings. The initial modem, named the Ayota View (“A-Toy-A
backwards,” as Keith explains it), was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas with positive response.

Behind
the scenes, things weren’t so good. In order to cut down costs, Bushnell
insisted on knocking the modem speed down to a crawling 300
bits-per-second, nowhere near enough for any real-time action. At that
speed, the Ayota View wouldn’t be able to offer much more than a leisurely game
of chess. Bushnell continued his questionable business decisions by offering
Keith a measly five percent of the company, and refused to allow him to meet
with the investors. The final blow for the Ayota View project came when Bushnell
pulled out of the “partnership” due to difficulties with an unrelated venture,
killing what would have been the world’s first console modem.

Left
to his own devices, Keith developed the first prototype of his Teleplay Modem
in 1992, with the help of an outside expert. The modem ran at 2400
bits-per-second, more than adequate for any action-oriented gaming needs on
the consoles of that time period. It even featured a standard AT keyboard
connector for potential internet access.

Rather
than focusing solely on the NES, the Teleplay Modem was a single unit designed
to also be compatible with the other two leading consoles of the time, the Sega
Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Furthermore, games
developed for the Teleplay Modem were to be cross-compatible between systems.
What this meant was that a user playing BattleStorm, a tank combat simulation
designed at the time by Keith, could compete on the NES against another user
using a Sega Genesis. Cross-platform compatibility such as this was, and still
is, unheard-of.

Braving
the perils of corporate America, Keith formed Baton Technologies, Inc. in a
small office in an industrial park near Skyharbor Airport in Phoenix. A
breakdown of Baton's staff, at its peak, is as follows:

Although the
entire crew was dedicated and talented, a lack of required venture capital from
Baton’s investors forced Keith to put so much time into developing the Teleplay
Modem that he literally lived at the office, sleeping on the office couch and
showering in the men’s bathroom. “Many nights at least half of us were working
past midnight, and as a break I’d take everyone out to a Denny’s a mile down
the road for dinner. Kind of an impromptu status meeting would come out over
the seasoned fries,” Keith recalled.

With all of the
technological development it needed, the only real pitfall Baton had to face,
other than financial difficulties, was that of obtaining an official license
from Nintendo and/or Sega. Licensing was, and still is, practically mandatory
for a video game developer on console and handheld gaming systems. Most major
retailers refused to carry “unlicensed” video games, such as those developed by
Color Dreams and American Video Entertainment for the NES, due to unwavering
pressure from Nintendo of America.

Knowing that
working without a license was practically suicide, Keith approached the
industry giants with an impressive demonstration of a fully-functioning modem
and early prototypes of Baton’s three compatible games.

The influence of
these “insular empires” spread all the way to third party developers interested
in working with the Teleplay Modem. Developers such as Electronic Arts and
Sierra Software showed interest in making modem-compatible games, and were in
contact with Keith, discussing the possibilities.

“But then a suit
would call higher up in the company and say they wouldn’t even consider making
their games compatible with the Teleplay unless we were licensed, said Keith.“

As if the
licensing woes weren’t enough, In July of 1993 AT&T announced their
partnership with PF Magic and Sega of America to develop the Edge 16 Modem,
compatible with the Sega Genesis and the ill-fated Panasonic 3DO. AT&T
promised all of the capabilities and features already developed by Baton. In
fact, there was only one minor detail to distinguish the two modems. The Edge
16 didn’t exist.

“Since they were
AT&T, they convinced Sega to license them and not us; not based on any
product they really had, but because of who they were,“ Will Rau, former
director of quality assurance at Baton Technologies, said.

Whether it was
because of Keith’s meetings with Sega, his conversations with third party
developers, or perhaps a premature magazine interview done by one of Baton’s
investors, it was fairly obvious that AT&T caught wind of Baton’s plans and
took it upon themselves to capitalize on their ideas.

With licensing
now out of the question, Keith made the brave decision to carry on without
official approval from Nintendo or Sega. Keith figured that Baton could survive
by releasing the Teleplay Modem well before the Edge 16 was ready for
production. He even planned to make the two modems compatible, assuring success
by competing on price.

“I wasn’t afraid
of AT&T,” Keith said, “although my investors were.”

Despite having a
huge order to fill, manufacturing set up and ready to go, and almost definite
success ahead, Baton’s investors became intimidated by AT&T. They pulled
out, taking their venture capital with them. Without the money necessary to
manufacture the Teleplay Modem, the first order went unfulfilled.

“If we had just
fulfilled our first order, we would have made back all the monies invested in
Baton up to that point and made a small profit,” said Keith.

With a
fully-functioning modem and three cross-compatible games completed and ready to
be manufactured, Baton closed its doors, leaving behind a $40,000 payroll debt
that Keith had to personally pay using his credit cards.

“With the benefit
of a lot of time to look back, Baton was my personality amplified – had its
technical face together, but was a little awkward socially, which led to the
lack of money,” Keith said. “It was a great idea, far ahead of its time. We all
learned a great deal from the experience, it’s just unfortunate we couldn’t
make it go.”

AT&T’s Edge
16 Modem was never produced. In fact, as of this writing, this author has found
no evidence to suggest that development was even begun. In May of 1995, a
company called Catapult attempted to revive the idea with their XBAND Modem.
Catapult had an official license from both Nintendo and Sega, and were able to
actually produce and sell their product which was compatible with both the Sega
Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. They enjoyed marginal success,
but ultimately failed. Any potential market for the XBAND Modem was diminished
by the Internet explosion of the mid-90’s.

A web site called
The Nintendo Information Repository
(http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository)
features a small article on the XBAND modem. “Five years previous to the
XBAND’s original release, this idea would have no doubtedly [sic] been a smash
hit.” Perhaps. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.